North Yorkshire rural broadband/satellite broadband/dead spots

[KievLoverTwo]

Hi all. The OH and I have been trying to move to North Yorkshire for quite a while. House prices are beginning to move in the direction we need them to, so it might be possible sometime soon.

Internet is increasingly playing on my mind. Not helped by the fact that we're currently rural in the North West, a tractor took out our phone line on 9th, and BT have thus far failed to actually get Openreach out to us on four successive occasions. Tomorrow is due to be the fifth appointment, but given I had a call from a bloke who was 'right outside your house' IN COUNTY ANTRIM this morning, I'm not holding out much hope (for added LOL value, the farm who took the phone line out have been up and running since the phone line itself was fixed on the 17th).

I waffle! We've been saved by mobile data internet access (literally, the OH WFH), which I know to be very problematic across a lot of North Yorkshire. As far as I can see, we have the following options:

Move to Harrogate (too crowed), Knaresborough (not the worst idea, also not my favourite in terms of housing stock) or York (small houses (<900sq ft OR ££££, because of a need for a not small house, which disability related and unfortunately not negotiable) - where Virgin is available.

Move to within 3 miles of a BT phone exchange (I do have a list) and hope for the best in terms of phone lines not being taken out again - but this does have an advantage, if that happens, there will be cafes he can go and work in. There's nothing where we are now. You get much outside around 3 miles and speeds seem to drop off, you get 5 miles out and it looks, to the best part to be 3mbps-30mbps max.

Move and hope that Starlink works (I have read on Rural Living 'a lot of people made the mistake of thinking that would work and had to move away') specifically in reference to satellite internet in North Yorkshire. This feels too risky. We don't have excess cash for a second house move.

Move, pay for both and hope for the best.

I really don't know if there are any other options that are tried and tested, and if so, where they are located.

Of course, the problem is, I don't like almost all the houses within a 3 mile radius of the BT exchanges (at least those currently being listed). I like those 5, 7 miles away, a bit further out in the countryside.

Can anyone think of, or know of any other options where I can have my cake (not live IN a town) and eat it, please? If it involves paying ££££ to get something (anything, ANYTHING at all!) hardwired from x location to the house, I'm alright with that. It's the seeming lack of options that's scrambling our brains a bit. Idk how, but we're in the arse end of nowhere, and my landlady somehow got 500 mb internet supplied to our house! (ofc, I can't ask her, she can't know we're looking to move).

We're mostly looking on along the A1 from Darlington south to Harrogate. Richmond, Bedale, Thirsk, Northallerton, Ripon (sinkhole paradise, but I like it), probably not Boroughbridge as almost all the available housing stock is new builds, Knaresborough, Harrogate if needs be, York if needs be. I also have a soft spot for Kirkbymoorside, and I don't really know why. Possibly just because I have a massive crush on the bloke who does the auction show on the telly. Or I like the surrounding countryside. Or I really like their farm shop. Shrug.

I'd prefer to be nearer the Dales if I could (despite knowing it can be a logistical ballache to get most things done), but I'm pretty sure that's 100% 'the internet says no' land, for the most part.

We focussed on the county because a) I love it, I don't really want to be anywhere else, goodness knows I have looked, and b) he can go interview in London if it all goes tits up with work next year. He's currently based in Manchester (goes in once every few months), doesn't mind a long journey for the right house.

Sorry for wall of text, thanks in advance. Even if you dash my dreams and say 'no hope, 3 mile radius or nowt', it's better than not knowing at all.

I live just outside Kirkbymoorside. Do you mean Angus? The auctioneer? I'll have to tell him he's got an adoring fan...

My internet is shocking, by the way, and lots of dead zones round here.

Aye. Angus has MANY adoring fans. There was a house listed the other day just 8 doors away from him! I know, because the other half counted them, tut.

That's a pity. It was a bit of an outlier for me. I'll just have to pop into the farm shop and maybe peek in at the odd auction instead :)

Oh come and live in Kirkbymoorside! It's absolutely lovely out here!

Although the thought of people fantasising over Angus makes me giggle rather a lot.

You mustn't say anything and make him blush!

(But if you do, pls record it. Too creepy? Oh well)

I would dearly love to, but we can't manage without decent internet. The houses are pretty good there too, so I am currently mildly irritated.

Not sure where you’re getting your info from, I’m on the edge of Ripon with fibre broadband up to 900 mb download speed (500 mb guaranteed). The gypsum deposits in Ripon are in a very concentrated area, easy to avoid.

Towns tend to be fine up to about three miles from the exchange. If you are within that, superb. I can tell you that if you go five miles out of Northallerton, it’s dire.

(I do have the sinkhole map! I am very very fond of Ripon)

Starlink works brilliantly in my part of North Yorkshire (YO17).

Another option, depending on where you're looking (NY is huge!) is Beeline Broadband - I know of a couple of local, rurally located businesses who use it and really rate it.

I don’t think that’s necessarily the case anymore, there was a council led countywide super fast initiative, broadband has been greatly improved in the last couple of years. I used to live down a farm track, even that’s got super fast now.

3 miles of a BT phone exchange doesnt give you good internet.
My parents have one at the end of the street (N Yorks village) and theirs is pants and no mobile phone signal either.

Southside of Harrogate isnt busy/crowded
There is only a traffic problem if you want to get from the Ripon side to the Leeds side. There is a different street cable as well as Virgin in Harrogate as well.

That’s awful. I will inform the OH, more despair to follow :(

I would like to know how to find out where they did this!

Do you happen to know the name of it please? The OH tends towards York because he lived there, but I do like Harrogate, so that’s useful, thanks.

That’s rubbish. Now the OH tells me they can run cable for miles in stupid directions and if it isn’t in a direct line from the exchange, it can be useless. Says he had that problem when he lived in York.

(NOW he tells me)

Tell them to look at Leased Lines - they might be able to get it installed more directly, but at what cost, idk. He said 5-7k for York plus a few hundred a month, but that was in 2011, costs may have lowered.

This gives me some hope <3

Thanks!

How do you find YO17?

York is horrifically expensive - most houses are getting bought up to turn into HMO for students. My daughter and her partner just moved out of York for just this reason (that and the stag and hen parties were getting out of control) and they bought something VERY swish in Malton for the money. Younger son currently lives in York but is looking to move out to one of the villages, simply because the city gets so busy with tourists that just going shopping can be a trial.

Son offered over the asking price for his York flat rental (Outskirts, just inside the ring road), just because it had virgin broadband (lots of small flat complexes aren't wired up for Virgin). He had two different friends (both living within the ring road) who were stuck with BT openreach cabling as their only option and they said the broadband was dire (slow and kept cutting out) but unfortunately, they didn't have Virgin, so they were stuck. Son needed fast reliable broadband as he works and studies from home.

We live within 1/2 a mile from our BT/Openreach exchange and our broadband is also dire, so we've moved to Virgin. BT/openreach put fibre down the main road, but we live in a small estate just off the main road and our entire estate is still on their old copper cabling, which is bad enough for landline (keeps cutting out and very poor quality) - broadband through it was a bad joke. You can't rely on fast/secure broadband with BT/Openreach, however close you are to the exchange unfortunately.

So they haven’t really bothered to better the internet in York since he left in 2011, it’s Virgin or nothing?

Depressing, but really useful, thanks.

https://cityfibre.com/news/cityfibre-rollout-brings-high-speed-full-fibre-broadband-to-thousands-of-premises-in-harrogate-and-ripon

We're very happy in YO17 (close to Malton). Neither of us are from the area, but have been here nearly 15 years now and have had a very positive experience. Good schools, easy access to the coast and countryside, whilst also being able to get to York, Leeds, Harrogate or Hull without any trouble. The property market appears to be relatively bouyant here at the moment. Malton is currently having full fibre broadband installed, I believe (do double-check that though as I can't remember who told me!). We've had Starlink for about 3 years now and it's has worked perfectly for all but 10 minutes of those 3 years.

Speed check link

Once you've identified a property you are interested in, you could look to get a quote for a leased line. They are expensive.

You can try via TalkTalkBusiness, Virgin Business, other smaller leased line providers such as Telcom and Gamma. It's a dedicated line for only your use that you will also need to get an IT/networking contractor to set up at your end with the equipment and a router. Prices vary depending on how many metres/miles the line is. Not unusual for them to be £500-£5,000 per month.

Openreach are not publishing in advance their rollout of full fibre, however, if there is barely any coverage at the moment, it won't be a priority for the fibre roll out either.

The cheapest way undoubtedly would be mobile 4G/5G data, get a test sim to check the coverage and speed when you are viewing properties. Do speed tests inside the property itself.

Thirsk and Easingwold both have full fibre provided by zzoomm. I personally haven't used it but there are some very active FB groups for both towns, so might be worth joining and asking if they might be able to comment on reliability. https://zzoomm.com/towns/north/thirskandeasingwold/

Im on beeline broadband. It only covers a relatively small area but there are other companies that do the same for other areas. We are miles from the exchange\cabinet.
If you are near the cabinet/exchange in village or town the broadband is fast. There was super fast North Yorkshire project a few years back
I have the cheapest slowest package on beeline and we’ve never had an issue. They do much better packages though. Great company you could ring them up as ask them for more info

Do you need a good fibre broadband or can you also check mobile signals? I've been working off a mobile sim in a router for 4 years now, fully WFH and its excellent. We now finally have fibre in the village and I can't be arsed to swap because we have zero issues. We are in a direct line of sight across the valley from the mobile mast which helps